"The Danger of Cosmic Genius"

How can someone so brilliant be so, well, dumb?

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My friend Ken Brower has a fascinating piece in The Atlantic Monthly for December on the visionary astrophysicist Freeman Dyson. Ken has known Dyson for years and wrote a wonderful joint profile of Freeman and his then-estranged son, George, titled The Starship and the Canoe.

As Ken writes, Dyson belongs in the same company as Einstein and other certifiable geniuses for his contributions to physics and other fields, including medicine.

But Dyson is also a climate denier, arguing that global warming won’t be all that bad. Ken evidently saw Freeman being interviewed by Charlie Rose, spouting all this indefensible claptrap, and couldn’t let it pass. It’s a fascinating piece with plenty of useful observations. I recommend it.

Tom Turner literally wrote the books about Earthjustice during his more-than-25 years with the organization. A lifelong resident of Berkeley, CA, he is most passionate about Earthjustice's maiden issue: wilderness preservation.